http://cbs4.com/topstories/local_story_347154356.html
Miami Terror Suspect Claims 'I Was Set Up' Brian Andrews <http://cbs4.com/bios/local_bio_327104734.html> Reporting (CBS4) MIAMI A South Florida contractor arrested by the FBI along with 6 others for allegedly conspiring to commit terrorist acts is giving his side of the case from behind bars. Narseal Batiste wrote a 25-page letter to CBS4's Brian Andrews, in which he says he and his group never had terrorist intentions. Insteadm he said he and his "followers" were looking for money for their Liberty City religious organization. The FBI tailed Batiste and his followers for months, generating hours of video surveillance as they built their case against them, saying they conspired with what they thought was a known terrorist organization to blow up federal buildings and Chicago's Sears Tower. "I want you to know that I never had any intentions of doing a terrorist act," Batiste now says in his letter. "My group and I never had reason to harm anyone." Batiste writes the FBI put drugs in food he and co-defendants Patrick Abraham were served by the FBI informant the night a surveillance tape was shot, on which Batiste talks about blowing up the Sears Tower. He wrote that he's simply telling the informant what he wanted to hear, just so he could get money from him for their church. "That's why you see me playing with tissue boxes talking about blowing up the Sears Tower. I made it up right then and there," he wrote. On the surveillance tape he is heard talkng about the Tower's weaknesses and where he would plant dynamite to take it down. He's also heard telling the informant he would need horses for an army of men to wage a war on the government in the chaos that would follow such an attack. "If you listen to the words I was saying, it's unrealistic, such as I need horses," he wrote. Batiste says he and his group were desperate for money, and that last September, a convenience store owner from Yemen offered assistance. He says the North Miami Beach shopkeeper, whom Batiste identifies as Abbas, teamed up with the feds to get help for his own financial and immigration problems by concocting the lies that led to Batiste and six others being arrested. "He played like he was going to help us fix our new headquarters, because he knew our intentions were to help our community," he said in the letter. "Abbas starting talking crazy like 'I want to get Bush to stop the war in Iraq and I want to blow up something.'" Batiste says he thought nothing of it because people can talk a lot of trash. "Little did I know that Abbas was setting my group up to look like terrorists," he said. "He even convinced me to play along with his conversation between him and his big brother because they said it would build a relationship tie with them and it would open the door to financial help from them." Batiste says he went along with it. "He knew we were eager for funding and that I went into great financial stress. So he suggested I meet a rich Arab friend: His uncle from Yemen." That "uncle" ended up being the FBI's second informant on the case, whom the government claims was passing himself off as a part of al Qaeda. Batiste identified him as Mohammed Abdul. Prosecutors have video tape of Batiste and Abdul meeting at an airport hotel, in which Abdul appears to guide the conversation toward jihad. "As you can tell, the man doing all the talking in Mohammed Abdul," he wrote. "I was surprised he was asking the questions that he did ask." Batiste blames the enire case on the government's first cooperating witness, the North Miami Beach convenience store owner, who was compensated for his efforts in the case both in cash and in the form of immigration assistance. "The Government never had any reason to investigate us. It was Abbas who planted this lie against me for the soul fact of him needing money." "The Government, desperate though to catch a terrorist, followed him and began designing a case against us with manipulation, fear, and intimidation." Batiste agreed to an on-camera interview with Brian Andrews, but after three weeks of wrangling with the Bureau of Prisons, the interview request was denied. BOP Spokeswoman Mercedes Feliciano declined to give details as to why, referring CBS4 to Batiste's court-appointed lawyer. We left several messages for Attorney Ana Jhones, but she hasn't returned any calls we've made to her since she was assigned to handle Batiste's defense several months ago. Jhone's unsucessfully tried to get a court order to prevent CBS and WFOR from airing portions of FBI surveillance tapes Prosecutors plan to use when trial begins next September. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
